Labor watchdog opens investigation into DOGE whistleblower claims after NPR reporting

The inspector general for the National Labor Relations Board is investigating the ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency’s interaction with the NLRB following NPR’s exclusive reporting about sensitive data leaving the agency.

The investigation was first reported by FedScoop, which filed records requests for information related to allegations made by IT staffer Daniel Berulis in an official whistleblower disclosure last month.

FedScoop reported Thursday that the outlet’s requests were denied “based on an exemption that allows agencies to withhold records that are ‘included in an open investigatory file where disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings.'”

The OIG’s inquiry comes after the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wrote to the acting Inspector General at the Department of Labor Luiz Santos and Ruth Blevins, inspector general at the NLRB, expressing concern that DOGE “may be engaged in technological malfeasance and illegal activity.”

A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee Democrats confirmed in a statement to NPR that an NLRB OIG investigation was launched “related to the Committee’s concerns about whistleblower allegations.”

More than 50 House Democrats in the Congressional Labor Caucus also signed a letter asking the NLRB for more information about DOGE’s activities at the independent agency that is in charge of investigating and adjudicating complaints about unfair labor practices and protecting U.S. workers’ rights to form unions.

“These revelations from the whistleblower report are highly concerning for a number of reasons,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to acting NLRB general counsel William Cowen. “If true, these revelations describe a reckless approach to the handling of sensitive personal information of workers, which could leave these workers exposed to retaliation for engaging in legally protected union activity.”

Tim Bearese, the NLRB’s spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment about the investigation.

But when NPR’s story was first published, Bearese denied that the agency granted DOGE access to its systems and said DOGE had not requested access to the agency’s systems. Bearese said the agency conducted an investigation after Berulis raised his concerns but “determined that no breach of agency systems occurred.”

According to the whistleblower disclosure and reporting from NPR, DOGE employees demanded the highest level of access to NLRB systems and disabled tracking measures. Berulis, the IT worker, tracked sensitive data leaving the agency’s NxGen case management system, followed by an unusually large spike in outbound traffic leaving the network itself.

Just one day after NPR reported on the whistleblower disclosure and allegations, DOGE also detailed two staffers to the agency to work “part-time for several months.”

More than a dozen federal court cases allege DOGE staffers have unlawfully gained access to sensitive data maintained by federal agencies across the government, like Social Security data, with little explanation about who has access to that data and how that access complies with privacy laws.

Have information or evidence to share about DOGE’s access to data inside the federal government? Reach out to the authors through encrypted communications on Signal. Stephen Fowler is available on Signal at stphnfwlr.25.  Jenna McLaughlin is at jennamclaughlin.54. Please use a nonwork device.